Central Truth

Good works won't save me, but God's grace and forgiveness will. I will dwell on God's grace, not on my strivings .

Reflections

Promises are hard to keep. We have all had the experience of broken promises from politicians, family, friends, and others. There seems to be no guarantee these days. How wonderful to know that God, our Creator and heavenly Father, makes absolute promises that He always keeps!

Paul is writing to the Galatian churches to remind them of God's covenant—His promise!—made to Abraham and his Seed, Abraham’s Descendant, which is Christ. Although the Old Testament Law was given to Moses for the people 430 years later, it was intended to make men more aware of their sinfulness and was not able to give life. The purpose of the Law is to show the futility of our own efforts to live the kind of life He intended for us.

Our relationship with the Holy God of the Universe has been broken because of our human sin nature. In God's perfect holiness, sin is completely unacceptable. We have a problem because there is nothing we can do or offer to mend this relationship. As Romans 3:23 says, “[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Even trying to keep “the Law” completely is impossible, and points out our insufficiency to produce righteousness. Why was the Law given by God? Does it negate the previous promise from our Lord? “The purpose of the law was to keep a sinful people in the way of salvation, until Christ (the Descendant) came inheriting the promises and distributing them to us.” (Galatians 3, The Message).

God's solution, which comes through Christ, is the promise to Abraham, his descendants and future generations to be pardoned and freed from sin. Because of God's tremendous, unconditional love and desire to develop an everlasting relationship with us, God sent his only Son, Jesus, as a sin-offering for us to fulfill His irrevocable promise. Abraham received God's promise as a free gift when He believed and trusted God by faith. God will keep His promise to save us and always be with us if we accept, believe, and receive it by faith in Jesus Christ.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you know anyone who has not broken a promise?
2. Have you always been able to keep promises you have made?
3. How did you feel when you couldn't keep your promise or a promise to you was broken?
4. If God's standards are so high that to even be angry with your brother or call him names is to make you guilty enough to go into the fiery hell, how are you going to fix that? See Matthew 5:21, I John 1:8,9 and Ephesians 2:8,9
5. Shall we continue to sin if we are under God's grace and not under the law? See Romans 6: 14-18.
6. What should be our motivation for serving and doing good works? Are those necessities for a Christ follower? See Ephesians 2:10.